Jolene Rae Harrington – McCain Spins Like a Top

Last week, the McCain campaign made as much hay as possible about rushing back to Washington for meetings with high-level officials on the proposed financial bailout. Yet in the meeting, McCain didn’t say a word and Obama finally had to call on him and ask him to contribute. Behind the scenes, however, McCain may have been siding with those recalcitrant Republican congressional members who refused to swallow the bitter bailout pill.

So the Spinmeister’s next move was to blame Nancy Pelosi for stalling the bill with her “partisan remarks” during one of her pre-vote speeches, implying that Pelosi had so incensed right-wing Congresspeople that they voted against the bill to spite her. But this tack backfired, since it made the elected representatives seem like they were indulging in playground politics at the expense of the American people. So the Rovian mouthpieces quickly withdrew those sound bytes.

Today McCain made a bold suggestion for the Bailout Plan—change its name. By calling it a Rescue Plan instead of a Bailout, McCain reasoned, the public would be more willing to support it. Obama signaled his agreement with the Nomenclature Solution, by stating just moments ago that “It’s the American economy that needs this rescue plan.”

The McCain camp’s response? “Campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said: ‘We welcome Barack Obama’s newfound interest in passing this critical economic rescue of our economy, but the American people needed leadership last week.” (From Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press Writer) I see. Even though it was the Republicans who voted in greater numbers to stall the plan, it was still Obama’s fault?

And while we’re on the spin subject, I wish everyone would shut up about putting partisanship aside for the sake of the American people. Uh, hello? For the first time since 9/11, that’s exactly what’s happening here. The Bailout—oh excuse me, RESCUE, is unpopular with both sides of the aisle! The Dems are holding their noses while they cast their votes, and we’ve heard virtually nothing out of Capitol Hill that can be construed as partisan. For once, Congress is actually arguing the issues. Yes, there is disagreement about which provisions to include and which to strike. But the GOP has turned its collective back on their disgraced leader and his evil sidekicks, and that should be applauded rather than derided.

That is, if anyone can get a word in edgewise while everything is spinning round and round.